The good thing about the Easter holidays is that it gives me a chance to go through my hard-drives and finally edit images that I might have taken many months ago as part of a Fotofilia workshop. In this case, these images of model Mark were taken over a year ago during a “Bodyscapes” evening (a series of art nude shoots, concentrating on lighting)…

In the next post, I’ll share some images of the female model from this event. Click here to find out more about Fotofilia training events.

I’ve finally managed to edit my images from our Downton Abbey-themed location shoot back in late March. There are too many for one post so forgive me if I run them over the next few. The location was the Victorian part of Haden Hill House in Cradley Heath, West Midlands (who were extremely hospitable – thank you!). The models were Emilie Walt and Joel Hicks – both great favourites here at Fotofilia.

Firstly, the pictures of Emilie. As usual, Emilie went the extra mile for her role, researching and creating authentic hair and make-up of the period and even making two outfits especially for the day.

I’ve noticed that when I set “self portraits” as a project or assignment option for my students, it is usually greeted with groans and the almost audible sound of minds switching off. I’ve noticed that foreign students are much more willing to tackle the self-portrait than British ones. I have no idea why this is but I try my best to encourage people to at least have a go as it can be one of the most interesting subject choices if approached with an open mind. Strangely, the ones most reticent to attack a self-portrait project are sometimes the very people whose facebook and Instagram profiles are stuffed to the gills with “arm’s length” “selfies”. Hmmm.

I recently came upon a beautiful set of self-portraits by a young man by the name of Alex Stoddardwho created many of his wonderfully expressive and inventive images as part of the “365 Project” (where one shares a photograph each day for a year). I’ve posted a few here but to see more, see Alice’s excellent full article and interview here.

By Alex Stoddard

By Alex Stoddard

By Alex Stoddard

By Alex Stoddard

Alex Stoddard is clearly an amazing emerging talent. His flickr page features work of an incredibly high standard. I hope these images might have been useful to my students who think a self-portrait is always a camera-phone shot in the bathroom mirror.

I came back to the studio one day to find that the coloured paper background had been taken down from its usual position on the wall next to the white and black vinyl rolls and had been stashed away in the storeroom. Puzzled, I asked my assistant Simon why it had been taken down. It seems a photographer using the studio had insisted it be removed because “it kept appearing in the photos”. The photographer had complained to Simon that the studio was too narrow and too low to successfully shoot the ONE MODEL he was attempting to photograph. After trying to explain that perhaps the problem wasn’t the studio dimensions, Simon reluctantly removed the background roll. The customer is always right, right?

I’ll freely admit that Fotofilia isn’t a huge aircraft hangar of a studio and that we have previously had to turn down bookings where a trapeze-type swing was involved due to limited ceiling height. However, I have successfully managed to shoot whole bands (with instruments) and even large families on our 3m wide background without the need to remove backgrounds from the ceiling hooks.

The problem, and it has happened MANY times over the years, is that photographers show up with the wrong lens for the job, often their hopeless 18-55mm kit lens, stand too close to their subject and wonder why they’re getting the doors and ceiling in the shot. After a while, I began to wonder if I should put a sign on the ceiling which reads, “YOU’RE USING THE WRONG LENS, MUPPET!”

This is very very basic photographic theory, which I’m sure most people reading this will already know, but I’m putting it here so that I can send the link to anyone who moans about backgrounds/stands/doors/their own shoes showing up in their images.

Here goes. The image on the left was taken with an 18mm focal length – notice how the wider field of vision includes peripheral clutter, stretches perspective, not to mention how the wide angle shortens Emilie’s legs and distorts her body and even face shape. The middle shot was taken with a 50mm focal length – what some of my students mistakenly refer to as a “portrait lens”. Finally, the image on the right is taken with a 105mm focal length – note NO clutter and flatteringly undistorted body shape.

Copyright David Rann 2013

Please note that these shots were taken on a crop-frame camera (you’ll need to do the mental arithmetic to work out the full frame equivalent).

And if this doesn’t convince you, take a look at the head shots below…

Copyright David Rann 2013

You don’t need to be an expert to work out that most people won’t thank you for being photographed with the wide-angle 18mm lens like the one on the left here.

So in future, leave my furniture and backgrounds alone and use the right lens. Fanx.